Football tops Sunday ratings action

Patriots-Steelers game makes CBS a winner

An overrun from the much anticipated NFL game between the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers helped CBS finish atop the leaderboard on Sunday night, with NBC running neck and neck with the Eye in some categories thanks to its own pro pigskin contest.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, the concluding 20 minutes or so of the Patriots’ 34-13 victory over the Steelers is expected to generate nearly a 10 rating in adults 18-49 when nationals are released Tuesday. The nice push at the outset of primetime lifted “60 Minutes” (roughly 4.3 rating/11 share in 18-49, 15.9 million viewers overall) and “The Amazing Race” (3.8/9 in 18-49, 11.9 million viewers overall) to above-average scores. “Cold Case” then clocked in with about a 3.0/7 in 18-49 and 11.2 million viewers overall, followed by “Shark” (2.4/7 in 18-49, 9.5 million viewers overall).

At NBC, its “Sunday Night Football” matchup between the Indianapolis Colts and Baltimore Ravens wasn’t very competitive from the start, with Indianapolis jumping out to a 30-0 lead midway through the second quarter. Still, the game is expected to come in with about a 5 rating in 18-49 and nearly 13 million viewers overall, making it the top-rated show of primetime in the demo.

ABC was paced by “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (4.4/10 in 18-49, 12.8 million viewers overall) and original movie “Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom’s For One More Day” (3.2/8 in 18-49, 12.5 million viewers overall). Latter becomes the most-watched movie on television this fall, and is the No. 2-rated original movie on television in the 18-49 demo during the past 20 months — trailing only Disney Channel’s “High School Musical 2″ last August.

Fox was paced by repeats of “Family Guy” (3.9/9 in 18-49, 7.8 million viewers overall) and “The Simpsons” (3.5/8 in 18-49, 7.6 million viewers overall) and a firstrun episode of “King of the Hill” (3.1/7 in 18-49, 6.5 million viewers overall).